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Monday, August 29, 2011

The Lost Symbol - A Book Review

Synopsis: As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

My Take:

If you loved Da Vinci Code and Angles And Demons then i am sure The Lost Symbol must be your next buy of the month.

Dan Brown always manages to get a strong reaction from me. Being an avid romance reader he must be the first thriller writer that got me hooked to him. Series by series I hunt for his books like a hungry tiger looking for a bait. Speaking of baits, The Lost Symbol is a dynamic combination of malice, secrets, secret society and some very interesting facts (as claimed by the author himself) about freemasonry, a secret society of men who hold very prestigious place at Washington DC.

The story begins with Robert Langdon being invited to Washington by Peter Solomon's assistant. Peter being a very close and respected friend of Robert, he rushed to find himself being duped into a conspiracy of something greater than what it seems. Symbols of freemasonry has to be interpreted and a pyramid had to be recovered from the very basement of the US capitol.

In the background we find his sister Katherine Solomon who is a scientist in Neotic sciences is under the impression that her brother had been seeing a psychiatrist. Mal'akh is the main antogonist of the novel and it is only because of him that we are on our edges. His character has been portrayed so very well that we know him more than the other characters of the novel. His life and the changes he faces to become what he was is simply outstanding. You picture him as a huge, bald, monster who wants to obtain the ultimate power. Perhaps to be become God. Its would be unjust for me to tell you more about him because reading this book is well wroth the money spent.Of course Dan Brown goes into details here revealing more about Freemasonry than perhaps he was given permission to. But then isn't he just famous of controversy? and book without controversy is just words in print, nothing else. And this book needs you attention as well. Its not a casual reading you would do one Sunday afternoon.

I did find the end a bit prolonged because with the end of Mal'akh, the novel didn't hold the appeal any more. Of course there is the sense of adventure that becomes intense when so many loose their lives in saving the secret of one lost word. To understand in detail I had to go online and do research myself or else it was just reading and forgetting the symbols and their meanings. The symbols were too for me to handle and I wish I had a symbologist to interpret Dan Brown's attempt to show off the deep research on the subject.

The Lost Symbol is the book for you if you like mysticism of the secret societies and unveiling them actually has a different kind of excitement.

Rating: 5/5 (just because I am prejudiced about Dam Brown's extent of research)